Healing from trauma is often part of recovering from substance use disorder (SUD) because experiencing trauma is one of the many factors that can lead to the development of addiction in the first place. Although processing trauma may sound intimidating, there are certain therapies such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) that can help make this process feel safer.
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is different for each individual. At the end of the day, what all traumatic experiences have in common is that they threaten your sense of safety and security. This could come in many forms, like experiencing the following;
- abuse
- a natural disaster
- community violence
- a car accident
- witnessing a loved one pass away
- feeling alone for an extended period
One important fact to keep in mind about trauma is that all trauma is trauma, and one type is not more or less significant than another. Trauma is about how you perceive a situation and how it continues to affect you, regardless of the context in which happened.
Healing From Trauma
Traumatic experiences get stored in the body and mind, perpetuating present-day concerns such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and addiction, among other struggles such as the inability to cope with emotions and relationship concerns. Luckily, there are many ways to overcome the lasting effects of trauma. One form of treatment that is especially helpful in healing from trauma is EMDR.
How EMDR Works
EMDR aims to support you as you build awareness around how past traumatic experiences impact you in the present day, how they shape your beliefs and thought patterns, and how they impact your ability to reach your goals.
Over the course of several sessions, you are guided as you process what happened and create empowerment, rather than disempowerment, around what happened. This is done by addressing the events that led to trauma and your thoughts and feelings present because of it.
Trauma can leave you feeling powerless, and healing helps you access autonomy, choice, and empowerment within yourself. Through building awareness around events that have happened in the past, how they affect you today, and shifting your mindset and perception around the past, you can experience healing and recovery. You are not what happened to you, and you have the power to shift the script.
Healing from trauma is a process, and it’s not easy to do alone. While there are many ways to promote healing from trauma, EMDR is one type of therapy that helps process events to heal from them rather than letting them stay stuck in the body and mind. At Avalon Malibu, we recognize the role trauma often plays in mental illness and substance use, and are here to support you as you heal from the inside out. If you are ready to begin healing, call Avalon Malibu today at (844) 857-5992 to learn about our recovery programs.
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